THE BOXER WHO WAS SCARED OF NOBODY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2011 :: RMTnews 31 O n March 31 1878 in Galveston, Texas, a man was born who was to have a profound impact not only on the sport of boxing but on US society. His name was Jack Johnson. Being a black man in the US then was to be destined for a future of low income, menial jobs, the status of second-class citizen, and to be subjected to racism at the hands of dominant white society. Worse was possible in the South, where the lynching of young black men was a regular occurrence. Johnson's parents were former slaves, his father Henry of direct African descent, and both worked long hours to support their six children. Jack was their second child and the bulk of what little education he received came from his parents, who taught him to read and write at home. School he attended only sporadically until he started work on the docks as a labourer in his early teens. Johnson's introduction to fighting for money came during this period, when he began taking on fellow workers and local hard men in specially organised match-ups for the money offered by spectators in return for a good fight. It has also been suggested that he participated in what were known as 'battle royals," a racist spectacle which involved several black men fighting one another at the same time in blindfolds. The exact number of fights which Johnson had during his career remains under dispute, but the lowest number of fights cited for him is 77, with other sources stating he fought 100 times and more. Considering that professional boxing bouts in the early part of the 20th century could go on for 30 rounds and more, there is no disputing the immense physical ordeal he endured in a career which ended in 1938, when following the sad song of most former champions a TKO in the seventh round against an opponent who at one time would not have been fit to lace Johnson's gloves finally brought the curtain down. But what makes Johnson, who went by the fighting name the Galveston Giant, such a major figure in US sporting and cultural history was not only his undoubted boxing ability but more a personality that brooked no deference to the prevailing racial hierarchy, one that expected blacks like him to know their place. After spending years being denied an opportunity to fight for the heavyweight title due to the colour of his skin, Johnson's chance finally came against the Canadian holder Tommy Burns in 1908. Burns had taken over the title from Jim Jeffries, who'd retired and who as the champion had continually spurned Johnson's attempts to fight for his title. Regardless, getting Burns to face him had involved two years of Johnson chasing the Canadian around the world taunting him in the press before he finally relented. The fight took place in Sydney, Australia, in front of a hostile crowd of 20,000 spectators. In winning the title from Burns, even Johnson was unprepared for the wave of racial hatred that was unleashed throughout his home country. At the time the heavyweight title was deemed the preserve of white fighters, and Johnson attracted the enmity it seemed of every sector of society except his own. Johnson was forced to fight a series of white contenders as the boxing Establishment set out to find a white contender who would prove the physical and fighting superiority of the white man over his black counterpart. Of a series of such fights Johnson took and won in 1909, the one against Stanley Ketchel has gone down in history. The fight lasted 12 hard rounds, until Ketchel connected with a right to the head which dropped Johnson to the canvas. As he got back to his feet, Ketchel moved in to finish him off. But before he could unleash another punch he was met with a right hand to the jaw from Johnson which knocked him out. According to legend, Johnson hit Ketchel so hard that some of his teeth ended up embedded in his glove. In 1910 the biggest heavyweight fight in the history of the sport took place in Reno, Nevada in an outdoor arena specially built for the event. Billed as "The Fight of the Century," it saw ex-white champion Jim Jeffries come out of his six-year retirement, saying that "I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race...I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all." Johnson proved both Jeffries and the white Establishment wrong when he knocked the former champion down twice on the way to eventual victory in the 15th, when the referee stopped the fight. The aftermath saw race riots erupt across the United States, with blacks being attacked at random and 23 killed. Meanwhile in black communities there were celebrations. Thereafter, dogged by a white Establishment that was determined to put him in his place, Johnson's personal life saw him tried and convicted for violation of the Mann Act, which prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes. Johnson, perhaps as a consequence of his being so maligned and rejected by mainstream society, was a man who sought solace in the company of prostitutes. He was fined and sentenced to prison by an all-white jury, but instead of accepting his sentence he skipped bail and fled the country to Canada, before heading to France. For the next seven years Johnson remained outside the US, moving between Europe and south America. In that time he continued to defend his title, which he finally lost to Jess Willard in Havana in 1915. Returning to the US in 1920, Johnson was immediately arrested and sent to prison to serve out his sentence. A request for his posthumous pardon is currently under consideration by President Barack Obama. An earlier request during the previous Bush administration was turned down by the US Senate. Johnson, who died at the age of 68 in 1948, married three times, on each occasion to a white woman. His last wife Irene Pineau was asked by a reporter at his funeral what she'd loved about him. "I loved him because of his courage," she replied. "He faced the world unafraid. There wasn't anybody or anything he feared." John Wight (This article first appeared in the Morning Star newspaper) THE BOXER WHO WAS SCARED OF NOBODY